首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
How much will a buyer be charged for a black Apple’s new MacBook laptop?
How much will a buyer be charged for a black Apple’s new MacBook laptop?
admin
2009-06-24
15
问题
How much will a buyer be charged for a black Apple’s new MacBook laptop?
If I fly to Chicago from Ithaca, N.Y., later this month, Northwest Airlines will charge me $565 if my trip does not include a Saturday night stopover, but only $410 if it does. Similarly, if I order Apple’s new MacBook laptop, the company will charge me $1,499 for a machine in black, but only $1,349 for an identically configured one in white.
As economists use the term, price discrimination means charging some buyers more than others for essentially the same product or service. Is it a bad thing? Buyers paying the higher prices understandably resent the practice. They might thus be surprised to learn that it often enables them to enjoy both lower prices and higher quality than would be possible if sellers charged the same price to everyone. Even more surprising, price discrimination often metes out rough justice among buyers, requiring those who are responsible for a greater share of sellers’ costs to shoulder a greater share of the burden.
For these claims to hold, sellers’ costs per unit must decline with the number of units sold. This test is met in many markets. According to Sandy Angers, a spokeswoman for Boeing, for example, the average cost per seat for a typical domestic flight is 25 percent lower for the company’s 180-seat 737-900ER than for its 110-seat 737-600.
Similarly, the average cost of laptop computers declines sharply with the number produced—largely because research and development costs are essentially fixed. When the company produces more units, each buyer’s share of the costs declines.
The upshot is that pricing schemes that enable companies to attract more buyers reduce the average cost per buyer served. And that frees resources that can be used to support higher quality—more frequent flights for travelers and more sophisticated laptops for computer buyers.
Among the ingenious tactics that sellers have developed for getting some buyers to pay more than others, many share a common feature: sellers offer discounts, but only to buyers who are first willing to jump a hurdle of some sort, like taking the trouble to mail in a rebate coupon. From the seller’s perspective, the perfect hurdle is one that price-sensitive buyers can jump without difficulty but that other buyers find impossible to jump.
One of the best hurdles yet discovered is the airlines’ Saturday stopover requirement. Business travelers are not only much less sensitive to fares than leisure travelers are, they are also typically away from home during the week and reluctant to spend weekends away from their families. In contrast, leisure travelers, who are much more sensitive to fares, almost always take trips that include at least one weekend. Thus, few business travelers are willing to meet the Saturday hurdle, whereas most leisure travelers can meet it without effort.
Is it unfair that business travelers pay higher fares for seats on the same flights. Except for business travelers’ demands for frequently scheduled flights, carders; could employ even larger aircraft than they currently do. So, the higher fares paid by business travelers are at least in part a reflection of the higher costs per seat associated with the smaller aircraft that carriers must use to accommodate their demands.
The issues are similar in the computer market. Although some people care a great deal about cutting-edge hardware and software, others would happily settle for simpler machines ff that meant lower prices. Offering discounts to buyers of traditional white machines enables Apple to expand its market. And this reduces its cost per unit sold, freeing resources to develop even more sophisticated machines.
Of course, discount hurdles do not apportion costs among buyers with precision. Some leisure travelers demand frequent service, for example, and would have been willing to pay for it, while some business travelers would have been willing to tolerate less frequent service if that meant lower fares. Similarly, some buyers who do not care much about a computer’s technical abilities may have an overriding preference for machines in black, while others for whom those abilities are important may be equally happy with machines in white.
On balance, however, there appears to be at least rough justice in these and other hurdle schemes. The buyers who care most about quality tend also to be those who are least willing to jump over discount hurdles. To the extent these hurdles work, business travelers and buyers of black laptops have little grounds for complaint.
选项
答案
1499
解析
从听力材料中我们了解到"if I order Apple’s new MacBook laptop,the company will charge me $1,499 for a machine in black…"由此可知,买黑色的苹果笔记本电脑要花费1,499美元。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/xyTd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
FromPonzitoMadoffTheyearwas1920.ThecountrywastheUnitedStatesofAmerica.Theman’snamewasCharlesPonzi.Ponzi
FromPonzitoMadoffTheyearwas1920.ThecountrywastheUnitedStatesofAmerica.Theman’snamewasCharlesPonzi.Ponzi
TheDevelopmentofAmericanPostalSystemIntheearlydaysoftheUnitedStates,postalchargeswerepaidbytherecipient
TooLatetoRegretItWhenIwasajunior,Imetasecond-yearstudentinmydepartment.Hewasn’ttallorgood-looking,but
Thereasonfortheirunusualbehaviorremainsapuzzle.
Whydoestheauthormention,’Egypt’smightypyramidbuilders"?AccordingtoKrom,theEgypt’sOldKingdomfell
A.Adjustmentofyoungpeople’sstyleB.DisadvantageofcollegeeducationC.WhatfasionisD.TheimportanceofcreativityE.Warni
A.Adjustmentofyoungpeople’sstyleB.DisadvantageofcollegeeducationC.WhatfasionisD.TheimportanceofcreativityE.Warni
AColorfulLifeonCampusBIntelligentStudentBodyCSchoolAdministrationDDistinguishedFacultyESubstantialFinancia
HowmuchwillabuyerbechargedforablackApple’snewMacBooklaptop?
随机试题
指出下列各词的反义词。并说明它们属于什么类型的反义词?
游离肼的检查中,展开剂为
有关脊髓休克的描述,不正确的是
患者,男,32岁。发热、寒战1天,头痛,全身酸痛,肢体乏力,鼻塞,流涕,偶有咳嗽,无咳痰,查体见结膜充血,查血常规可见
某公司预计2013年棉花丰收而订立了招收工人的劳动合同,并且要求每名工人缴纳1000元的“进入费”。后由于棉花大量减产,该公司遂提出变更原劳动合同,工人未同意。该公司宣布解除劳动合同,退还1000元的“进入费”,对工人的补偿要求不予理睬。针对该公司的上述行
依代理委托方的不同,物业代理可以分为()。
[1998年第033题]进行单体设计的室外总体布局时,下列哪一条原则是错误的?
个体身心发展具有不均衡性,因此教育要()。
A、 B、 C、 D、 A从整体来看,第一组共有5个叉和9个三角形,填入A后,第二组图共有5个五角星和9个黑点。
设y=y(x)由yexy+xcosx-1=0确定,求dy|x=0=______.
最新回复
(
0
)